Air cleaning device for motor vehicles



Nov. 30,1948. 5, HETH 2,455,252

AIR CLEANING DEVICE FOR MOTOR VEHICLES Filed Dec. 8, 1945 JWZ??? 5%02/222402 (345% Patented Nov. 30, 1948 AIR CLEANlNG DEVICE FOR MOTOR VEHICLES Sherman Kath, Racine, Wis.; assignorto. J I. (Ease Company, Racine, Wis., a. corporation of W scons n Application December 8, 1945, Serial No. 633,717

This invention relates to precleaners for oil bath air cleaners for use in conjunction with. internal combustion engines. More particularly thisinventionrelates to air cleaning devices used in conjunction with. engines which have to operate in an atmosphere charged with dust.

In'the past, tractor engines and other internal combustionv engines have had to use two. air cleaning or air filtering. systems fortheir practical'operation. One air cleaning system was for the'purpose of providing clean air to cool the radiator of an operating engine. The other air cleaning. system was for the purpose of providing clean. filtered airv to. the carburetor. In the case of tractor engines it has been common practice to have the air intendedfor cooling the radiator to'be cleaned or -filtered by the engineradiator screen. For clean air intended for the. carbure: tor, 'aycommon practice for engines. has been the provision'of an air filtering system, comprising an. air precleaner which. usually is a cloth sack stretched over a metal frame attached. to a, pipe running. toan air filter. The air filter which is commonly used is an oilbath air-cleaner wherein the precleaned air that has filtered through the cloth sack is further clarified and; filtered by passing through a bath, of oil and then passing through a Wad oifibrous, materialto catch any nonfiltered, dust particles, and then finall conveying the clean filtered air through a, QQnduit from the oil bath air cleaner to the carburetor.

This airfiltering systemhas a disadvantage in thatthe cloth sack of the precleaner has to receive carefulattention when a tractor is operated under dusty conditions where excessive amounts of chaff and-dust are present. The .cloth may be easily damaged and cut, thus allowing excessive amounts of dust and extraneous matter to get into the oil bath air cleaner. When this happens it; means that the oil in the oil bath air cleaner rapidly becomes saturated with dirt and; very frequent oil changes are necessary; Furthermore, an excessive amount of dust and dirt fed-t0 theoil bath cleaner means that some of this dust and clirt will get by the oil bath air cleaner into the carburetor and into the engine itself. This means unsatisfactory and unreliable carburetor operation'and-invites the danger of having dust going from the carburetor to the internal parts of the engine to cause excessive wear of moving engine parts because of the abrasive action of the dust material. This may cause valves to become slow -acting or to hold open so that the valves leak and burn. Another.- reason why the clothsack has-to receive constant and careful attentionis source of clean. air for .both the oil bath air cleaner, the carburetor andthe. external surface 0t tractor engines. may be. supplied" without inviting the d-iificulties and hazards of a cloth sack prefilter, and without necessitating two separate air cleaningsystemsl An. object of my: invention, therefore, is to provide an air. cleaning. system. for tractor engines which is-capableof serving. asa means of simultaneously cooling thewater circulating through the radiator and supplying air for gas combustion.

Another object of: my invention is. to provide a uniform.v and reliable source of precleaned air to .a carburetor air filterunit.

Still another object of my invention isto provide improved means. for furnishing prefiltere air to arr-oilbath air cleaner. i

A. further objectof'my invention-is to prefilter air intendeda for the carburetor by means of an enginerladiator screen ofthe 'self cleaning type.

Another object. of my invention'is. to provide ameans wherebytheair intake for a carburetor is. located inside ofthe airscreen. of. an engine radiator. r

Still another object of. my invention is to provide means whereby an engine radiatorair screen filters foreign material from air. which passes through the radiator and from air which is supplied to the: carburetor.

.Further objects; and advantages of my invention will. be apparent. from the description and claims. a i

Referringv now to .the drawings:

Fig. 1. is--a perspective viewshowing a tractor enginewherein the air intake for the oil bath air filter is 'a; conduit.-:leading from a shutter type self-cleaning radiator screen to the entrance to an oilbath air cleaner; and

Fig. 21s a perspective. view showing the air intakeafor an oilbath air. cleaner as being obtained by means of a conduitv extending from the radia tor shroud to. the. entrance. to the. oil bath air filter.

Referringnow'to Fig. 1-, during engineoperationthe fan I causes -a stream of air to be sucked through the screen 2"for the engine radiator 3, said screenbeing-equippedwith a screen housing 4 and air intake consisting of a conduit 5 leading from the lower section 23 of the radiator screen to the oil bath air cleaner 6, the air being sucked in by the action of the engine 8 as shown by the arrows i. This air is a common source of clean air for the air intake in-the conduit to the oil bath air cleaner, as well as a source for cool air for cooling the radiator of engine "8. The screened and cleaned air which enters the conduit at the air intake, passes through the oil bath air cleaner to the carburetor 9., By having the air intake to the oil bath air filter located at the lower section of the radiator screen housing, the filtering effect of the radiator: screen is made to benefit both the air for cooling the radiator as well as the air intended for the carburetor. The result is therefore a combined air cleaning system which eliminates the unreliable and cumbersome filter sack air precleaner and which provides a common source of cleaned air for cooling the engine radiator and for providing precleaned air for the air filter supplying finally cleaned air to the carburetor.

A spring biased damper shutter device I2 is used to momentarily interrupt the flow of cooling air from the screen to the radiator. The spring member maintains the damper E2 in a vertical position therebyclosing the opening 2! in front of the lower section 23 of the radiator screen housing. By moving the damper l2 into horizontal position by means of the hand lever 13, the opening 22 of the upper screen housing 4 is momentarily closed. This causes a momentary in terruption of the flow of cooling air from the upper screen housing 4 to the radiator 3. This interruption of air flow releases chafi and large dust particles which are built up and held on the screen by the inward draft of air. Most of the chaff falls to the ground as soon as this air interruption takes place. The damper is closed only momentarily and immediately returns to its vertical position by means of the action of the spring 20. This screen cleaning arrangement permits the use of a much finer screen wire than that used in ordinary radiator screens ofthis 'type. Without screen cleaning means one must resort to the use of a coarse screen wire in order to avoid the clogging of the radiator by chaff and dust. A coarse screen could not serve as a prefilter to an oil bath filter or to a carburetor since the air flowing thru a coarse screen contaminated with chaff would contain a considerable amount of dust that would soon clog the oil bath filter or the carburetor. I v In'Fig. 2, the air intake is the conduit which leads from the radiator shroud It to the oil bath air filter 6 instead of leading from the radiator screen housing, such as is shown in Fig. 1. The general operation of the air cleaning system for Fig. 2 is essentially the same as for Fig. 1. The elimination of the cloth filter sack as a pre-air cleaner for the oil bath'air cleaner and the replacement of this by a shutter type self-cleaning radiator screen does away with the difficulties and disadvantages of previous pre-air cleaning systems. There is no need to constantly .watch and periodically examine the filter since there is no cloth material to be broken or cut. .Incase of rain, the difiiculty of having chafi and dust pack the filter medium and thereby cause insufiicient air to reach the carburetor is eliminated since the shutter self-cleaner can be readily operated by means of the hand lever 13 withuot the need of paying any attention'to the wet or dry state of the dust collecting at the outside of the screen.

While I have described this invention with particular reference to a combination radiator and carburetor screen, I do not limit myself to this particular type of air cleaning system. Other modifications will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Thus, in place of the oil bath air filter any commonly used air filter for carburetors may be provided. For the radiator screen any suitable mechanical means for conveniently removing an accumulated coating of dust and chafi from the screen may be used.

It is obvious that in the construction shown in Fig. 2 the fan will create a superatmospheric pressure which will have a supercharging effect in supplying air and fuel to the motor.

Further modifications will be apparent to those skilled in the art and it is desired, therefore, that the invention be limited only by the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described by invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a motor vehicle including an internal combustion engine, a carburetor, an air filter for said carburetor and an engine radiator, the combination comprising a fan for causing cooling air to fiow through said radiator, a chaii screen for screening the cooling air flowing to said radiator, an air conduit leading to said air filter having an entrance opening in the path of the screened flow of air caused by said fan, and means for confining and directing said flow of air to insure that all the air entering said conduit has been screened, said chaff screen having a mesh small enough to prevent chafi from reaching said air filter.

2. In a motor vehicle including an internal combustion engine, a carburetor, an air filter for said carburetor and an engine radiator; the combination comprising a fan for causing cooling air to fiow through said radiator, a chaff screen for screening the cooling air flowing to said radiator, an air conduit leading to said air filter having an entrance opening in the path of the screened flow of air caused by said fan, and means for confining and directing said flow of air to insure that all the air entering said conduit has been screened, said chaff screen having a mesh small enough to prevent chaff from reaching said air filter, said screen being fixed with respect to said radiator. I

3. In a motor vehicle including an internal combustion engine, a carburetor, an air filter for said carburetor and an engine radiator, the combination comprising a fan for causing cooling air to fiow through said radiator, a chaff screen for screening the cooling air flowing to said radiator, an air conduit leading to said air filter having an entrance opening in the path of the screened now of air caused by said fan, means for confining and directing said flow of air to insure that all the air entering said conduit has been screened, said chafi' screen having a mesh small enough to prevent chaff from reaching said air filter, said screen being fixed with respect to said radiator, and means for removing the screened-out material collected on said screen.

4. In a motor vehicle including an internal combustion engine, a carburetor, an air filter for said carburetor and an engine radiator, the combination comprising a fan for causing cooling air to flow through said radiator, a chaff screen for screening the cooling air flowing to said radiator, an air conduit leading to said air filter having an entrance opening in the path of the screenedflow of air caused by, said fan, means for confining and directing said flow of air to insure that all the air entering said conduit has been screened, said chaff screen having a mesh small enough to prevent chafi from reaching said air filter, said screen being fixed with respect to said radiator, and means for removing the screened-out material collected on said screen comprising means for cutting off at least a portion of the screen from the fan action.

5. In a motor vehicle including an internal combustion engine, a carburetor, an air filter for said carburetor and an engine radiator, the combination comprising a fan for causing cooling air to flow through said radiator, a chaff screen for screening the cooling air flowing to said radiator, an air conduit leading to said air filter having an entrance opening in the path of the screened flow of air caused by said fan, and means for confining and directing said flow of air to insure that all the air entering said conduit has been screened, said chafi screen havin a mesh small enough to prevent chaff from reaching said air filter and spaced a substantial distance from said radiator.

6. In a motor vehicle including an internal combustion engine, a carburetor, an air filter for said carburetor and an engine radiator, the combination comprising a fan for causing cooling air to flow through said radiator, a chafi screen for screening the cooling air flowing to said radiator, an air conduit leading to said air filter having an entrance opening in the path of the screened flow of air caused by said fan, and means for confining and directing said flow of air to insure that all the air entering said conduit has been screened, said chaff screen having a mesh small enough to prevent chaff from reaching said air filter in front of said radiator and spaced a substantial distance therefrom.

7. In a motor vehicle including an internal combustion engine, a carburetor, an air filter for said carburetor and an engine radiator, the combination comprising a fan for causing coolin air to flow through said radiator, a chafi screen for screening the cooling air fiowing to said radiator, an air conduit leading to said air filter having an entrance opening in the path of the screened flow of air caused by said fan, and means for confining and directing said flow of air to insure that all the air entering said conduit has been screened, said chafi screen having a mesh small enough to prevent chaff from reaching said air filter in the rear of said radiator and spaced a substantial distance therefrom.

SHERMAN C. HETH.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,416,813 Fuller May 23, 1922 1,860,697 Traviss May 31, 1932 2,021,853 Curley Nov. 19, 1935 2,299,157 Lowther Oct. 20, 1942 

